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NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

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Waldensamkeit
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Joined: March 15th, 2011, 12:39 pm
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Re: NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

Post by Waldensamkeit »

The plugin and the skin are two completely different things. You don't actually see the plugin the way you're stating. The skin however which is what I think you are referring to is completely customize-able toward any shape, size or invisibility you would like.

Right click on the player and select "edit skin" take some time to read through the coding and see what applies to what. i imagine it is heavily commented to make it easier to read and then start playing around with different pieces of code and see what you can do. Also, dont forget to make a back-up of the original file in case you get too far off track
magnus33
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Joined: May 19th, 2011, 8:49 pm

Re: NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

Post by magnus33 »

Waldensamkeit wrote:The plugin and the skin are two completely different things. You don't actually see the plugin the way you're stating. The skin however which is what I think you are referring to is completely customize-able toward any shape, size or invisibility you would like.

Right click on the player and select "edit skin" take some time to read through the coding and see what applies to what. i imagine it is heavily commented to make it easier to read and then start playing around with different pieces of code and see what you can do. Also, dont forget to make a back-up of the original file in case you get too far off track
Forgive my lack of clarity its been a long day and i am tired..lol.

Yeah the skin its customizable but i was thinking more a default option or two for those who aren't experienced in editing skins.
Editing great for us but many her are quite new at this.

And man am i tired took nearly ten min to type this...lol.
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Seahorse
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Re: NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

Post by Seahorse »

It's from here that you begin to customise, most skins have some co-ordinates, and some colours defined, simply start tinkering with those (make a backup first). Some also use images as backgrounds and the file names are listed, again, you can re-colour, replaced or edit those too.

Some are defined against the individual meters, others in the variables, making global changes simpler. It's worth looking at the example skins for something similar to what you want to change as they usually have explanations of what is going on... ;-)
Last edited by Seahorse on June 22nd, 2011, 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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jsmorley
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Re: NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

Post by jsmorley »

magnus33 wrote: Forgive my lack of clarity its been a long day and i am tired..lol.

Yeah the skin its customizable but i was thinking more a default option or two for those who aren't experienced in editing skins.
Editing great for us but many her are quite new at this.

And man am i tired took nearly ten min to type this...lol.
My take on this in general, and not directed at you as such is:

The skin that comes with NowPlaying is meant to be a reasonably simple (and yet poiru managed to have it be fabulous as well) example of some of the things you can do with the plugin in the context of a skin. It is meant to be fairly easy to understand, and something even a pretty new Rainmeter user can figure out how to edit to change it to look and work the way they want. I think turning it into yet another of those huge, complicated, bloated skins with all kinds of baked in customization hand holding, so people are falsely led to believe they can use Rainmeter without even having to open up a text editor or spend a few hours figuring out how to use Rainmeter as a tool (which it is) and not an app (which it isn't) would be a mistake.

If a person wants to use any given Rainmeter skin "as is" and it makes them happy that way, that's fine. However, the real fun of Rainmeter is that it really is pretty easy to learn how to bend it to your will. You start small, messing with colors and font sizes and positioning, and within a day or two of tinkering the light comes on, and with manual at the ready you will soon be posting your own creations here and winning "Skin of the Month". If someone wants to just "use" Rainmeter and expects that skins are going to behave like some Windows Sidebar gadget where you right click and just set "options", then Rainmeter is not the right tool for that person. I'm ok with that too. Rainmeter isn't for everyone. It's a bit of a "power user" tool.
feltuber
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Joined: June 17th, 2011, 3:36 pm

Re: Testing VLC support

Post by feltuber »

poiru wrote:If you want to give NowPlaying.dll with VLC a shot, grab this. Copy the correct version of the NowPlaying.dll into Rainmeter\Plugins\ (usually in Program Files) and the VLC libcad_plugin.dll into VLC\Plugins (usually in Program Files\VideoLAN).

Then, open VLC -> Tools -> Preferences. Select 'All' under 'Show settings'. Expand 'Interface', then click on 'Control interfaces' and activate the 'CAD Now-Playing' interface. Restart VLC.

Now, open Rainmeter (with player set to VLC in the skin .ini) and VLC. VLC support is still a work in progress. There are several things that do not work, but the basics should work.

(And, for those wondering, the libcad_plugin.dll is named libcad as it implements the CD Art Display interface. This means that the libcad plugin can be used with CD Art Display, too. Haven't tested, though.)
Hello
I realy want to use this plugin.
However, when I click the link suggested, I can't download anything... :-(
Is it working?
poiru
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Re: Testing VLC support

Post by poiru »

feltuber wrote:I realy want to use this plugin.
However, when I click the link suggested, I can't download anything... :-(
Is it working?
Wait a day or two and I'll post links to download it :)
eddie the head
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Joined: June 20th, 2011, 12:30 am

Re: NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

Post by eddie the head »

is there any way to get the current queue as list?
poiru
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Re: NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

Post by poiru »

eddie the head wrote:is there any way to get the current queue as list?
Nope (and it is very unlikely to be implemented in the feature as only one or two players have an interface extensive enough for this kind of stuff).
magnus33
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Joined: May 19th, 2011, 8:49 pm

Re: NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

Post by magnus33 »

jsmorley wrote:The skin that comes with NowPlaying is meant to be a reasonably simple (and yet poiru managed to have it be fabulous as well) example of some of the things you can do with the plugin in the context of a skin. It is meant to be fairly easy to understand, and something even a pretty new Rainmeter user can figure out how to edit to change it to look and work the way they want. I think turning it into yet another of those huge, complicated, bloated skins with all kinds of baked in customization hand holding, so people are falsely led to believe they can use Rainmeter without even having to open up a text editor or spend a few hours figuring out how to use Rainmeter as a tool (which it is) and not an app (which it isn't) would be a mistake.

If a person wants to use any given Rainmeter skin "as is" and it makes them happy that way, that's fine. However, the real fun of Rainmeter is that it really is pretty easy to learn how to bend it to your will. You start small, messing with colors and font sizes and positioning, and within a day or two of tinkering the light comes on, and with manual at the ready you will soon be posting your own creations here and winning "Skin of the Month". If someone wants to just "use" Rainmeter and expects that skins are going to behave like some Windows Sidebar gadget where you right click and just set "options", then Rainmeter is not the right tool for that person. I'm ok with that too. Rainmeter isn't for everyone. It's a bit of a "power user" tool.
Don't get me wrong i totally get where your coming from but rainmeter headed toward just that type of user.
Now there well always be us who tinker behind the scenes on various plugins to make them look or do what we want .

Problem is rainmeter is aiming toward a broader audience and has improved its design to become much easier to use.
Sad as it may be but those are the people that well likely define the future growth of rainmeter.

Also bloat really needs to be defined here since my volume control gadget for windows is 656kb and contains 50 skins.
Not what i would call bloated in anyway shape or form and it does the job perfectly. (credit to orbmu2k)

Think what iam saying is there has to be a balance between what power users want and what those that merely want to use rainmeter.

There is of course also my friend who red color blind and does great work on tinkering with rainmeter.
Problem is her often forgets what he seeing and what actual color is up there aren't always the same...lol
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Kaelri
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Re: NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

Post by Kaelri »

magnus33 wrote:Don't get me wrong i totally get where your coming from but rainmeter headed toward just that type of user.
Now there well always be us who tinker behind the scenes on various plugins to make them look or do what we want .

Problem is rainmeter is aiming toward a broader audience and has improved its design to become much easier to use.
Sad as it may be but those are the people that well likely define the future growth of rainmeter.

Also bloat really needs to be defined here since my volume control gadget for windows is 656kb and contains 50 skins.
Not what i would call bloated in anyway shape or form and it does the job perfectly. (credit to orbmu2k)

Think what iam saying is there has to be a balance between what power users want and what those that merely want to use rainmeter.

There is of course also my friend who red color blind and does great work on tinkering with rainmeter.
Problem is her often forgets what he seeing and what actual color is up there aren't always the same...lol
I'm not really sure what you're asking for. Rainmeter includes a suite of default skins, illustro, which will probably include a media player skin by the next stable release. In addition, there are plenty of third-party skins - Enigma, Gnometer, Omnimo, etc. - which will each have their own unique applications of the NowPlaying plugin's functionality. The Rainmeter ecosystem offers plenty of options for users without even cracking open a text editor.

But that's really where we draw the line - and as JSMorley can tell you, I say that as someone who's fought to improve Rainmeter's newbie-friendliness for the last three years. I work hard to make my suite provide the maximum amount of functionality and choice with the minimum amount of technical skill, and I'm gratified by user feedback which indicates I've achieved that goal. The skins are my product, and I make that product for the users. But if someone wants to change my product to make it do something it wasn't designed to do... I mean, I can provide helpful commentary in the skin files, and I'll even offer as much guidance as I reasonably have time for. But bottom line, they have to learn the code just like the rest of us.

Rainmeter's expansive toolkit and hospitable learning curve make it really easy to cross the bridge from user to creator, and that's what makes it special. But that bridge will, and should, always exist.
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